Loving Michael Since Birth

Raising Awareness: Today is World AIDS Day

There is an international day set aside for the awareness of HIV/AIDS for a reason. Human Immunodeficiency Virus/ Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome is an incurable disease that is home to more than 30 million worldwide. http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm

And Michael, being the humanitarian that he was, was no stranger to this devastating disease. Michael, who selflessly reached out to many children worldwide was involved in a touching friendship with Ryan White, a young boy from Indiana who contracted HIV/ AIDS in the 1980s from a blood transfusion, and became the poster child for HIV/AIDs. Ryan White, who died in April of 1990, was shunned and harassed for fear of his disease. Not long before Ryan passed, Michael befriended the boy, aiming to allow the world to realize that this child was just that- a child. Michael attended the funeral of the young boy and wrote the song Gone Too Soon in honor of his lost friend.

Below is a video of Michael singing the song dedicated to Ryan at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. Afterwards, Michael asked that President Clinton to provide research and treatment funding to better combat the disease. In August of 1990, the Ryan White Care Act was passed.

On October 21, 2009, the House passed the Ryan White HIV/ AIDS Treatment Extension Act (S.1793) reauthorizing the Ryan White program for four years. A little over a week later, Ryan White’s mother, Jeanne Ginder-White was present at the signing ceremony of the fourth extension of the original Care Act. This Act has gone on to help people with HIV/AIDs for nearly twenty years, and has no intention on stopping any time soon providing care, treatment, and support to almost a half million people affected.

Below is an interview involving Ryan’s Mother on he and Michael’s friendship.